LONDON (Reuters) - Britain gave Margaret Thatcher its grandest political funeral in half a century on Wednesday as her flag-draped coffin was borne through central London on a horse-drawn gun carriage, though a few boos were a reminder of her divisive rule and legacy.
In an event comparable to Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965, the Queen joined top British and foreign politicians past and present to pay her final respects to the "Iron Lady" who - for better or for ill - transformed the country.
Thousands of supporters lined the streets of London as Thatcher's casket made its final journey from the center of British political power in Westminster to St Paul's Cathedral.
Honored with a gun salute from the Tower of London every minute and the silencing of the bells of Big Ben, military bandsmen played Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Chopin. More than 700 military personnel and thousands of police provided security.
Thatcher, who ruled Britain from 1979-1990, died after suffering a stroke on April 8. She was the country's first and only woman premier, its longest-serving prime minister of the 20th century, and won three consecutive general elections.
She sought to arrest Britain's post-war decline by smashing the trade unions and privatizing Britain's national assets, while boosting home ownership and the services sector.
More than 20 years later, her supporters view her as a modernizing champion of freedom, while her foes accuse her of destroying communities and of ushering in an era of greed.
As a bell mournfully tolled, a party of soldiers and sailors carried her casket on their shoulders into St Paul's Cathedral.
Beneath its giant painted dome - the same place where Horatio Nelson's funeral was held and Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer were married - more than 2,000 mourners then heard a somber service filled with hymns and reflective readings.
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